The present invention generally pertains to communication signal processing and is particularly directed to tracking a received signal having a known preamble followed by a message portion.
A prior art method of tracking the phase of a received signal packet having a known preamble followed by a message portion comprises the steps of:                (a) generating a phase control signal in accordance with phase parameters;        (b) tracking the phase of the received signal packet by mixing the received signal with the phase control signal to thereby provide a phase-tracked signal packet;        (c) providing estimated phase and frequency parameters and estimated timing parameters by processing the known preamble;        (d) causing said phase control signal to be generated in accordance with the estimated phase and frequency parameters;        (e) generating a timing control signal in accordance with timing parameters;        (f) providing samples of said phase-tracked signal packet by sampling said phase-tracked signal in accordance with the timing control signal;        (g) causing the timing control signal to be generated in accordance with the estimated timing parameters;        (h) generating phase error parameters and timing error parameters by processing samples of the phase-tracked signal packet;        (i) causing the phase control signal to be adjusted in accordance with the phase error parameters generated by step (h); and        (j) causing said timing control signal to be adjusted in accordance with the timing error parameters generated by step (h);        